Connecting a Nokia 5200 LCD screen to an Arduino - Help

Development Boards Arduino
1

Hello,

I would like to “recycle” my old Nokia phone by using its lcd screen and connecting it to an Arduino. I am planning to do this as a end-of-the-year project for the ICT course at my school.

I am a total beginner (I have just bought a book about it in order to learn it properly) and therefore would like to know:

I suppose there’s a driver included in the screen (something like the HD44780) I can simply communicate with using a library. How do I find out which one it is? I can’t seem to find any datasheets, despite googling it for some hours.

Here’s how the main board of the phone looks like: http://lh4.ggpht.com/_Mds1iyUkMXU/S0fUU … Pinout.jpg. Can I directly connect it to these pins, or do I have to completely get the screen out of the phone, in order to attach it to the 22 pins?

The few things I have found out:

128*160

Same screen used in the following Nokia phones: 2865, 5070, 6060, 6061, 6070, 6080, 6085, 6086, 6101, 6102, 6103, 6125, 6136, 6151, 7360

Picture ofthe pin layout: http://lh4.ggpht.com/_Mds1iyUkMXU/S0fUU … Pinout.jpg

Here’s some kind of complicated schema, maybe it helps you: http://i51.tinypic.com/1089p8n.jpg

The screen itself has 22 pins.

The final question: Is that even possible?

Regards :smiley: ,

Daniel

(After posting this in the official Arduino forum two days ago and not getting any answer, I’ll try it here)

2

Not sure I can help at all. You might start with reading this:

http://andybrown.me.uk/wk/2012/03/06/re … -qvga-lcd/

https://forum.sparkfun.com/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=22423

3

Forays into adventures like this are indeed more complex than it would seem from a laymans point of view.

To them, the count of traces traversing that mylar ribbon conductor arent known or cared much about yet. LOL

Therein lies the trap!

Them conductors, every one of them (plus the 3 you cant see or didnt notice) are critically important, and miss-guessing just one of them and putting power to the circuit can and will break (fry) something more than the screen you are working with…probably kill the host device you are attempting to drive it with…releasing the smoke spirits and rendering the whole assemblage a paperweight, a stinky toxic paperweight at that.

But, if you aim high, and have the fortitude and patience to gather your data like the guy Andy in MeeMacs link, you can indeed savor the reward of completing the initial goal of just making it do something other than being a phone.

I say all this only because you stated plainly early on you are a beginner at all this…but you did gather relevant datasheets to target components already (if they are the right device) and this shows you might have “the right stuff”.

Now I say, if you understand how steep this is, and want it to happen, by Jolly you just bite off all you can chew and keep us nearby for the heimlich support if you start choking on it. We will cause you to spit it back out where you can look at it again, all shiny and covered in slobber… 8)

And if you succeed and at least get the backlight to shine without freeing the smoke spirits, you might be a budding electronics hobbyist/tech. The more you figure out you can do, the hungrier you get…heh

Good Luck